


Cadence; Friend of Hyrule

by Mika_13



Category: Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer featuring The Legend of Zelda (Video Game), The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Cadence is gonna be an older sister, Cadence is ready to hit Ocatvo over the head with her shovel, basically a retelling of Cadence of Hyrule
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:40:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25672216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mika_13/pseuds/Mika_13
Summary: A retelling of the story of Cadence of Hyrule
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17





	Cadence; Friend of Hyrule

**Author's Note:**

> This is just an intro of sorts and I'm not sure if I'll continue this  
> Also this is basically the first thing I've ever written and definitely the first thing I've ever put on the internet for the whole world to read so yeah

Now Cadence was no stranger to weird things happening to her. Like for example falling down a hole while searching for her missing father, being trapped in a series of crypts and tunnels with never-ending waves of undead out for her blood while feeling her heart forcefully beating to the rhythm of a strange sourceless music after being cursed by a necromancer.

No sweat, she took that in stride. Or rather dance.

Freeing her dad, defeating the Necromancer (Or rather NecroDancer as they jokingly started to refer to him after they were all home safe and sound) and reviving her dead mother with his magical golden Lute?

Not exactly easy at the time, but she persevered.

Finding out the lute was cursed and that it would slowly leach away her mother’s humanity?

Cadence had to admit that was hard. Still harder was watching her mother descend deeper still into the underground, playing that cursed lute, in search of something that would safe her and not being able to do anything. She had always been very bad at doing nothing. Her mother did return eventually, her humanity fully restored, with her grandmother’s body of all things in tow. She had been sad that she never got to speak even a word to her but being able to give her a proper burial after a lifetime of knowing her corpse was lost to the crypts had been soothing in a way. And they had finally been a family again.

One would think Cadence would never again set foot in a graveyard, cave or tomb after an ordeal like that but the need to seek treasure ran strongly in her blood and so she started venturing out again soon after. Sometimes with her father, sometimes with her mother and sometimes with both but she had to admit that she liked venturing out alone best of all. Just her, her shovel and her wits to guide her, just how her uncle Eli had taught her.

So yes, Cadence was indeed quite accustomed to strange happenings in her life, but falling through a rift in the floor of a tomb at night, being surrounded by a strange golden light and the smell of woodsmoke and spices and landing in a sunny clearing was a new experience even for her.  
The forest floor was relatively soft at least, unlike the rocky ground of the crypt, and she was quite certain she hadn’t broken anything. She groaned loudly and blinked rapidly, trying to get her eyes adjusted to the bright midday sun.

“Oh Hylia! Hey! Hey, you!” a shrill, slightly panicked sounding voice suddenly called out.

Cadence sat up, hand reaching for her shovel. She always tried to be cautious around new people, as all great treasure hunters should be according to Uncle Eli, and didn’t want to deal with some stranger while still dizzy from the rapid shift in location with something to hit them over the head with should push come to shove. She looked around but saw no one. That greatly worried her. She was already quite certain there was strange magic at work and now a disembodied voice?

“I saw you fall from the sky! That landing wasn’t very graceful. Are you okay?”

Cadence was almost sure there was real concern in the voice. That or the speaker was a good liar. She looked in the direction of the voice, which was up, and froze when she saw the source. There was a small, blue-white ball of light suspended about a meter above her head. No, not suspended, it flittered back and forth nervously, held aloft by two small pairs of translucent wings.

“Uh…” was her very intelligent answer to the little orb’s question.

“Oh no! Did you hit your head and forgot how to speak?!” The small creature started moving in anxious circles around Cadence’s head.

“Uhm, no I can speak, but I’m just confused - sorry, could you stop flying like that, you’re making my dizziness worse – Also, not to be rude, but what exactly are you?” She new a lot of weird creatures, but the small ball of light didn’t strike her as a demon or an undead.

“What am I? Have you never seen a fairy before?” The _fairy_ (fairies were real?) stopped in front of her face and pulsed as if puzzled by her question. “You must not be from around here.”  
“Oh, I’m really not. Speaking of, where exactly am I?”

The fairy flew from side to side. “You’re in the Kingdom of Hyrule! Now that I look at your ears it’s quite obvious that you’re not a Hylian.” (What did her ears have to do with anything) “I’m Trill by the way. Nice to meet you!”

“Cadence. And it’s a pleasure.” She stuck her shovel in the earth in front of her and used it as leverage to get up. She then looked upwards. There was nothing strange above, no portal, no nothing.

Trill flew an excited loop around her before hovering in front of her again “Looks like you can still move! I’m glad you’re not injured! But you have an unfortunate timing for arriving in Hyrule… It’s usually so peaceful, but something strange has been going on lately.”

“Something strange? Like people falling out of the sky?” She would really like to know how to get home again.

“Not really. Though that’s kind of weird too now that you mention it. No, an evil sorcerer named Octavo has cursed the land! There’s monsters appearing everywhere! And worst of all? Everyone is suddenly forced to move to the beat of this strange song!”

Cadence froze. “The song? You mean their hearts beat like a drum? Their bodies forced to move in rhythm or suddenly feel a terrible pain?”

Trill seemed a bit taken aback by her suddenly intense look and flittered back a bit. “Yeah exactly! And not just that, he cursed my friends, Link and Zelda, and made them fall asleep with that strange lute of his!”

Her blood ran cold. The lute? How could the lute still exist? Her grandma had given her life to ensure it could never be used to hurt anyone ever again. And now it was here? In a strange land filled with real life _fairies_ and used to terrorize an entire people? She felt something touch her right hand, which she had unconsciously brought up to clutch the bit of tunic above her heart. She blinked and looked down. Trill had landed on the back of her hand. She could make out no features with that strange white-blue light surrounding her tiny form, but she was sure the fairy was looking up at her worriedly.

“Are you alright?” Trill asked quietly and with so, so much empathy in her voice. She had only ever heard that tone from her parents. And her uncle of course. “You turned all quiet and you didn’t react when I said your name. Will you be okay?”

“I will be.” Cadence said softly. “It’s just… This sounds so familiar. A sorcerer with a golden lute. I was cursed by someone like that once, my heart and life tied to the beat of a song. He messed with my family real bad. I thought we made sure he was gone for good, but if he’s here now? And affecting so many people? We must have failed…”

“But you beat him before!” Trill shot up from her hand. “You know how to fight him! And you won’t be alone, my friends will help!” her brightness dimmed slightly. “Should they ever wake up again that is…” The fairy looked so dejected and after the kindness she had showed her earlier Cadence couldn’t just stand idly by.

“Maybe I can help you find a way to wake them up. There must be a reason I’m here. This can’t just be a coincidence. Could you take me to them?”

Trill brightened- quite literally- and flew back and forth excitedly! “Oh thank you, thank you so much!” The little fairy suddenly flew forward attaching herself to Cadence’s torso in what she thought was probably intended to be a hug.

“The easiest way to reach them is actually right through here, there are two portals in the shrine behind those trees that lead to them! But I have to warn you, there’s strange beasts in there too…”  
“Oh don’t worry about me! Cadence patted her trusty dagger’s sheath attached to her belt. “This isn’t the first time I’ve wrangled with monsters! Lead the way!”

This was good. Doing something was good. Finding out about the lute (The fucking lute!) still existing had sent her spiralling a bit but now a plan was forming in her mind. Or not exactly a plan, an idea of action then. 1st: Find Trill’s friends 2nd: Wake them up 3rd: find and defeat the lute wielding maniac 4th: return home. Easy as pie.

Trill led her through the woods and after a few minutes Cadence could see an opening in the side of the hill. It was old and derelict, but she could see that it must have been a place of importance at one point. The entrance was stable, even after all this time and erosion, originally build from massive blocks of marble and she could see the remains of intricate carvings decorate the sides.

“This is an ancient shrine in honor of the Three Golden Goddesses.” Trill spoke. “It is said to have a connection to the Triforce. I never believed that until now.”

Cadence didn’t know who the Three Goddesses were and Triforce sounded kind of strange, but she nodded along. “So there’s portals in there?” she asked instead.

“Yes. One leading to Link and one to Zelda. I discovered them on accident. It’s what led me to believe that this place’s connection to the Golden Power might be more than myth.” Another weird term to file away for later.

“Well then. Let’s find your friends.” With that Cadence lit a torch from her pack and stepped into the darkness of the old temple.

It was surprisingly dry inside. Less smelly than the average tomb as well, which was always a plus in Cadence’s book. The halls and corridors were quite grand and she was sure it must have been a great place of worship many centuries before, though now quite abandoned and apparently forgotten.

“How did you even now this was here?” Cadence whispered to Trill. The little fairy made for quite the good light source, nice and bright and not as flickery as her torch.  
“I have family that lives close by in the woods. I came here hoping for some lore on a power to defeat Octavo and found these portals instead. And then I found you! Thank you again for helping.” Cadence huffed a quiet laugh.

“No problem. Better than sitting on my butt while waiting for someone else to fix the problem for me.”

They encountered their first monster soon after. It looked almost exactly like a slime from the crypts ,and with the well-known strange music picking up and forcing her into old patterns, Cadence thought it must have come straight from there, but Trill assured her that they existed in Hyrule as well, but were usually far less numerous.

“They’re called Zols. They’re usually pretty easy to deal with since they’re not very smart, but their high numbers in combination with other more intelligent monsters make them a bit of a problem… Plus the music makes everything so much harder…” Trill had stumbled through the air, not quite figuring out how to move her wings to the beat. “You are really good at this.”

Cadence made quick work of the slime – Zol, whatever – and continued further into the shrine. A few rooms down she had her first encounter with a monster she hadn’t encountered before. It was strangely pig like and shrieked the second it saw her, eyes narrowing as it began trotting towards her clumsily. She didn’t know if it too was just not used to the beat yet or if they were just usually like this. Despite its toddler like movements, its swing looked like it packed quite a lot of strength so Cadence took care to dance out of reach in time and stab it in its unprotected side. The beast – a Bokoblin as Trill informed her - burst into a foul-smelling cloud and the two were free to continue at their own pace for a bit.

It almost worried Cadence how accustomed she still was to navigating, exploring and fighting while under the influence of the beat, but all her experience sure came in handy. Still, she was quite glad when they reached the final room, surprisingly small in comparison to the earlier halls, decorated with elaborate and well-preserved murals depicting beasts and people fighting against them. In the very center of the mural were four figures, three rather stylized humanoids in the colors red, green and blue, each presenting a golden triangle to a crowd of small people on the bottom of the image, with a smaller golden figure in the shape of a veiled woman with wings holding her arms over the people as if she were praying or protecting them. It was quite interesting, and not just to the treasure hunter part of Cadence.

More interesting still were the two swirling portals in the middle of the room, one blue and one green. She could see two people, one through each of the strange passageways, though their forms were distorted through the magical gateways. On the left, through the green portal was what seemed to be a young boy in a simple wooden bed. On the right, through the blue one was the form of a girl, older than the boy maybe but still younger than Cadence herself, if she had to guess. Her bed seemed quite a bit bigger and more noble than the boy’s.

“Are those Link and Zelda?” She asked her companion.

“Yes, they are! Oh look at them, sleeping and helpless!” Trill flittered back and forth between the two rifts. “Darn it!” the fairy suddenly cursed. Well, not really cursed, not by Cadence’s standards, but it sure was harsher than anything else the small thing had said so far.

“What? What is it? Is something wrong?”

Trill flickered with emotion as she spoke. “This magic? I think these portals are one way only. Whoever we chose to visit, the other will be left alone! What if something happens to them? What if Octavo comes for them again?! I could never forgive myself if they came to harm!”

“Is there no one else to protect them?”

Trill seemed to think about this. “Well, last time I saw Zelda, Impa was with her. She’s Zelda’s bodyguard and very capable. I don’t know if she can stand up to dark magic though… Link however is all alone. He has no family left since his uncle died three years ago.”

Cadence felt a sympathetic pain at that. She couldn’t even imagine what it’d be like to lose Eli. She had known him her entire life and taught her everything she knew. She loved him as much as her parents. “Let’s go to him first then. He doesn’t deserve to be alone. We’ll just have to hope this Impa person can keep Zelda safe till we find her.”

Trill finally calmed down a little. “That- that seems like a sound plan. We’ll just have to hurry.” Cadence nodded and walked towards the portal on the left. _Here goes nothing_ she though.

The portal was a lot like whatever first brought her to this new world. The same golden light surrounded her as she fell. The smell was different this time, however. Like forests and thunderstorms instead of smoke and spices. It also didn’t last nearly as long, dropping her onto a worn but comfortable rug in a small room. Or well, small house more like it, she could see a table as well as a kitchen area and small windows on all sides. In a wooden bed towards the back of the room was the small form of a boy who seemed quite a bit younger than her. Fifteen, maybe sixteen, but no older than that. He looked quite peaceful, his left arm slung over his face and snoring loudly. She would never have guessed that he was cursed, just taking a nap maybe. Trill promptly flew towards the boy and hovered slightly above him in a way that looked both worried like a mother fussing over her young child.

“Oh Link…” she spoke quietly, distress evident in her voice.

Cadence stood up and stepped towards the bed but stopped after a few steps when she felt something strange on her right hand. A sense of warmth that was flooding up her arm, getting more intense the closer she got to the bed. It didn’t hurt and didn’t feel bad either, not like the feverish heat of an infection or a flame you got to close to, but the warmth of a hearth, of warm food and good company. She looked down onto the back of her hand and was surprised to find a strange symbol there. Three triangles in a stack, glowing a soft gold with the one on the top glowing far brighter. It looked the same as the mural in the old shrine.

“Cadence…” Trill had flown back over without her noticing and her voice was filled with awe. “That light… It is the Triforce of Power. It really is no coincidence that you’re here, you must be chosen by the goddesses!”

Cadence looked at her small companion, confusion evident on her face. “What? Me? Chosen by the goddesses? What do you mean?”

“That is a part of the Triforce. The Golden Power. Only truly exceptional people can wield even a piece of it.” Trill’s glow brightened. “I knew you were special.” Her voice was filled with certainty and warmth.

Cadence felt a bit shellshocked. Chosen by some goddesses she didn’t even know? It had to be a mistake, right? She looked up to ask Trill more about the Triforce and these goddesses but stopped when she noticed another golden glow in the room. Link’s left hand was bathed in a similar glow that illuminated his sleeping face.

Trill seemed to notice this too. She flew back over to her friend and bounced through the air excitedly. “Your and Link’s Triforce! They’re resonating! Maybe you can wake him up with this!”

Cadence made another step towards the bed, eyes flickering back and forth between her hand and the boy. The warmth began to increase again, but she started to feel something else too, like a hum deep in her bones. She tried to concentrate on the feeling, a feeling of harmony, and closed her eyes while stretching her right arm out towards Link. _Please _she thought _Please, I must have you for a reason. Let me wake him up.___ The humming increased, a sound like a ringing bell, and golden light intensified as it flooded the room.

And suddenly it stopped. Cadence looked around the room, afraid she had done something wrong, but then a hint of blue caught her attention.

Two bright cornflower eyes looked up at her from between blankets and pillows, still blinking quite sleepily.  
The boy pushed away the duvet and sat up, all the while looking at Cadence, before raising his hands and beginning to make gestures with them. Signs. The boy was making signs. Eli had taught her how to speak with her hands as not to attract the attention of monsters or other treasure hunters while on a job and so she understood when the boy said

‘Hello. My name is Link. What are you doing in my house.’


End file.
